Classifying Data with Amazon Macie

Macie can help you classify your sensitive and business-critical data stored in the
cloud.
Currently, Macie analyzes and processes data stored in Amazon S3 buckets. To classify
your data,
Macie also uses the ability in AWS CloudTrail to capture object-level API activity
on S3 objects
(data events). However, Macie monitors CloudTrail data events only if you specify
at least one S3
bucket for Macie to monitor.

Once you specify the S3 bucket or buckets for Macie to monitor, you enable Macie to
continuously monitor and discover new data as it enters your AWS infrastructure. For
more
information on how to specify S3 buckets for Macie to monitor, see Specifying Data for Macie to Monitor.

Note

Macie's content classification engine processes up to the first 20 MB of an S3 object.

If you specify S3 buckets that include files of a format that isn't supported in Macie,
Macie doesn't classify them, and your Macie usage charges don't include any costs
for this
content. Your Macie usage charges include only the costs for the content that Macie
processes. For example, Macie can't extract text from .wav files (images or movies);
therefore, it doesn’t process that content, and you’re not charged for it.

Object Risk Level

Through the automatic classification methods previously described, an object that
Macie monitors is assigned various risk levels based on each content type, file
extension, theme, regex, and SVM artifact that is assigned to it. The object's compound
(final) risk level is then set to the highest value of its assigned risk levels.

Retention Duration for S3 Metadata

Macie stores metadata about your S3 objects for the default duration of 1 month. You
can extend this duration up to 12 months.

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